Bartender Has Plenty To Talk About

March 13, 1988|By Tim Pinnock of the Sentinel staff

The head bartender at Pebbles Restaurant in Altamonte Springs has been sharing a pretty wild fishing tale with his customers this week.

''As soon as I set the hook I knew it was a monster,'' Tim Larsen explained to a man who had nuzzled up to the bar to hear the story. ''The darn thing jumped out of the water like a whale, and I knew from that moment on I was in for a tussel.''

The battle with the hefty lunker began at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday on an Altamonte Springs' lake and ended 10 minutes later. Larsen, 30, was using a 12-inch plastic worm called a Rattler Hawg. He got the homemade worm from Robert Bishop, 44, a Lake Mary angler who insists his invention is the key to flushing out the titans of bassdom.

After reading in this column about Dennis Staton's netting a 15-pound, 1- ounce bass out of Lake of the Woods last month, Larsen decided to give the jumbo worm a try.

It was dark by the time Larsen launched his johnboat into the public lake and began working his bait very slowly along the bottom. The one thing that made his worm different from Bishop's other Rattler Hawgs was that this one glowed in the dark.

Bishop reckons a large glowing worm is easier for bass to spot at night, which he says is the best time to catch a wallhanger.

''I figured the glow was either going to scare them to death or make them hit like crazy,'' Bishop said. ''Apparently they liked it.''

Larsen had made less than a dozen casts when he felt a tug on his line. But instead of setting the hook right a way, he patiently let the fish grab the worm and run.

''I know I only let her go for about two minutes,'' he said. ''But it felt like forever.''

As soon as Larsen set the hook, he knew he had a dandy. She fought him for every inch of line, and as she neared the boat she jumped once, twice three times.

At last she tuckered out, and the excited angler reached down with his net and scooped her out of the water.

''It was the biggest bass I'd ever seen in my life,'' Larsen said. ''I'd caught a 7-pounder and a 9-pounder in November, but they were nothing compared to this one.''

Once Larsen had the brusier in hand, he quickly got off the lake and went to a nearby store to weigh his catch. He was delighted to see her tip the scales to 13 pounds, 2 ounces.

So large was the fish and so fierce was the struggle, that Larsen admits he will play the battle over in the theatre of his mind for a 1,000 nights to come. And for those customers who meander up to his bar, you can bet they're going to hear the tale about the monster bass caught on a glow worm big enough to light up Oviedo.